Eren Yeager: The Karate Kid
by AssassinErik
Summary: Eren Yeager, a 15-year-old high school student struggles with his school life and the relationship between himself and his mother. However, one night, a janitor at Eren's school, who happens to secretly be a Karate master, decides to help Eren and show him how to face and conquer his struggles by teaching him the disciplinary martial art of Karate.
1. Chapter 1

**Eren Yeager**

 **The Karate Kid**

 **This story is heavily based off of the 1984 version of The Karate Kid with a few elements of the 2010 version. This was just an idea I got while I was rewatching The Karate Kid (1984) and I honestly loved the idea so much, that I couldn't help but sit down and start writing it. I hope that you guys find it enjoyable.**

Chapter 1: New Day

Karate. Yeah, I know what you're thinking when I say that word. You're thinking Karate is a sport used for kicking people's asses and looking like a king who's on top of the world. Well, you're wrong. Karate is not meant to be looked at as a sport (even though someone decided to make it into a sport anyway), it is meant to be looked at as a tool for self-defense only. But it's not only good for self-defense, it's also good for self-growth (Physically, Mentally, and emotionally) and being at peace with everything that wrongs you.

Karate has been such a big part of my life ever since I was fifteen years old and it has changed me in so many ways I couldn't even think possible. I cannot thank the man who taught me Karate enough for how much he helped me grow not just as a Karate student, but also as a person. I've made many relationships with people when I became a Karate student and I've helped those who were misguided in life find their way back onto the right road with the use of Karate.

When I look at the world today, I see many young children (even adults) who are being misguided and are being convinced that fighting and beating the living crap out of your enemies is the only way to make things better in your life. It really pains me to see the world go through such a dark age of misguided individuals. That's why I decided it was necessary to write out the story of what my teenage life was like before and after I started learning Karate, and how it really helped me with my troubles.

My name is Eren Yeager, and I ask you to follow me on the journey I've experienced many years ago.

I think I should first start of with stating that back then, I had short brown hair (but it was long enough to nearly cover my eyes), and teal green eyes. I know, I didn't look all that extraordinary in any way, but hey, even some of the most extraordinary people have the most ordinary looks…not to brag though, I am pretty extraordinary.

The date was August 20th, 2012. It was an early Monday morning and I was laying unconscious in my bed with my TV and PS3 left on as well as with a controller laying face flat on the floor in front of my bed. I had spent hours last night playing Soul Calibur V…well, I actually spent a quarter of how long I stayed up passed my bedtime trying to figure out which fighting game I wanted to play.

When I was young, I was obsessed with movies and video games that involved hand to hand fighting. I always found hand to hand combat movies to be badass and it was awesome to see people do so many cool techniques and fighting skills that I didn't exactly think were physically possible. I owned all of the current Soul Calibur games (counting Soul Blade since that was the first game)…well, all of the games at the time. I owned some Street Fighter games, and even couple of Dragon Ball Z and Naruto games. I also owned some most of the Bruce Lee movies and three Bruce Lee posters; one was hanging on my bedroom door, another was on the wall behind my TV, and the last one was on the wall next to my bed.

As I was sleeping blissfully in my bed, my slumber was disturbed by the noise of a really loud air horn. My heart jumped and pounded at rabid speeds as my eyes jolted wide open while I let out a short scream. I looked towards my left side to see my mother standing right next to my bed with an air horn in her right hand.

My mother, Carla Yeager, was a fairly lovely woman in her early thirties. She had the same brown hair I possessed, she had caramel colored eyes, she was wearing a cream-colored blouse, a pair of bright blue jeans, and a pair of brown Franco Sarto Bocca Loafer shoes. Her hair was so long that she kept it in a ponytail and left it hanging over her right shoulder.

My mother looked down at me with a rather unpleased look and let out a rather heavy sigh.

"Eren, I told you not to stay up late. I told you that you had school in the morning." my mother said with a displeased tone

Today was the first day of my sophomore year at Fritz High School. My mother had been constantly telling me yesterday to not forget to go to sleep because I had to be up bright and early. But to be fair, this wasn't the only time I've disobeyed my mother's wishes. This has actually become a trend ever since last year. I've been staying up late and have been having trouble staying awake as well as focused in school. I barely even passed last year.

However, the lack of sleep and focus weren't the only issues. I've also gotten into a lot of fist fights and have received many injuries from said fist fights. I've been getting black eyes, bloody foreheads, and even a few dislocated shoulders. Every time I had to come home with an injury or my mother had to come see me in the nurse's office, she always freaked up and gave me a half day long lecture afterwards. The only excuse I would ever have for getting into a fist fight was if the jocks at school were wronging me or picking on the other kids that were about half their size.

In all honesty, I think it's safe to say my Freshman year of high school was the worst year for both me and my mother. I've really damaged my study habits (even though my study habits weren't that great to begin with) and I've caused my mother a lot of stress and grief because of my actions.

I yawned loudly and stretched my arms and legs out as much as I possibly could while closing my eyes tightly. It felt difficult to keep my open, like the lids were made of led. As I moved me body up into a sitting position, I moved my legs over to the side of the bed…but in the process, I accidentally stepped on my controller, but luckily it wasn't hard enough to crush it. I moved my foot off my controller, picked it up, and held down the power button to operate the shut off option. Once the PS3 was off, I got up from my bed, walked up to my TV, and turned it off.

My mother sighed again.

"Eren," my mother started, "What am I going to do with you?"

I sighed in a rather annoyed tone as I walked over to my dresser and started throwing on a T-Shirt with Bruce Lee on it.

"Not anymore than you already are." I answered, "You've already got yourself stressed out over me enough as it is, so quit worrying about how much I sleep or the situations I get involved in."

"Excuse me?" my mother demanded now with an angry tone

"I would like you to stop getting into my own personal business." I shot back

And that's actually another thing that's been causing my mother a lot of stress: my attitude. Ever since I turned fourteen, I've been developing a rather snotty attitude of wanting my mother to stay out of my affairs and mind her own. Back then, I was feeling really fed up with all the times she lectured me about me doing the things I thought were right. I kept on thinking to myself "What's it going to take to get her to realize that I'm only doing something good and that she can't keep on being in control of the decisions I make for myself?"

"Eren Yeager," my mother raised her voice, "your life is not officially yours to live yet. You are still under eighteen years old and are still living under my roof. As long as you are living under my roof, you will listen to what I have to say and stop this bullshit behavior of yours."

"What's bullshit about standing up for myself or anyone else, huh?" I asked as I threw on a pair of dark blue jeans "The jocks at school are constantly bullying the other kids who are half their size and some of those kids aren't even brave enough to stand up for themselves. The jocks are making those poor kids lives miserable and nobody at the school is being brave enough to stand up to them and do something about it, not even the damn teachers."

"And look at all the times you ever got yourself involved. I see you come home with bruises, cuts, black eyes, and I even have to come see you in the nurse's office because of you getting your bones dislocated. You haven't made any kind of progress with this little goal of trying to show the big kids at school the errors of their ways. You don't have the power to do that." my mother said

I slammed my sock drawer shut after grabbing a clean pair of socks. I walked over to my bed and started slipping them onto my feet.

"If I don't take action and try to fix the situation, who will?" I asked "God knows that the teachers are refusing to take proper matters into their own hands, even the principal has been refusing to expel those assholes. If nobody else is going to even bother trying to make things right, I don't see any other reason as to why I shouldn't. I'd much rather get a bunch of broken bones trying to make a difference than get a bunch of broken bones not doing a damn thing."

As I finished slipping my socks onto my feet, I then slipped on my new white sneakers that my mother got for me last weekend. I then picked up my bookbag that was sitting right against a bottom leg of my bed and made an attempt to walk out through the doorway. But I was stopped by my mother grabbing onto my right shoulder.

I turned around to face her. I could easily tell that there were a lot of worry and concern in her eyes.

"Eren, please. I'm begging you. Please don't go picking any fights today, not on your first day." she pleaded

I hesitated for a while feeling all the anger towards my mother come to a holt. It made me feel so angry when my mother always told me to stop doing what I was doing. I felt like she just didn't care about how I was just trying to protect myself and others against the assholes at school. In the end, I let out a heavy sigh.

"Fine, I won't stand up for myself or anyone else today." I said angrily and I walk out of my bedroom

I walked down the entrance hallway of our house. As I nearly reached the door, I stopped in my tracks when I spotted the last picture that was ever taken of my father sitting on a small glass table.

My late father, Grisha Yeager, he too had long hair. His hair, however, was dark brown and only came down to the bottom of his neck. He also had the same matching teal green eyes that I possessed. He wore big circular glasses that looked like the glasses that Harry Potter wears, and he always wore a doctor's uniform and coat. My father was a doctor at our local town's hospital.

As I stared down at the picture of my father, seeing that bright happy smile on his face, I clenched my fists tightly in anger and walked out the front door.

When I arrived at the school, I thought back to what my mother said to me this morning. As much as I didn't want to do it, she was right about one thing on the matter: it was the first day of my Sophomore year and I didn't really need to start it off with a fist fight. I decided to swallow the bitter pill and just try to avoid things for today.

I walked over to the gymnasium because that's where everyone was required to go to before classes started for the new year. When I entered the buildings, hundreds of Freshman, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors were sitting on the bleachers and the loud echoes of endless chatter filled the entire building.

I suddenly felt a few taps on my left shoulder and I turned to see whoever it was that was tapping me. I smiled brightly when I saw a guy who was just about as tall as I was, but just a little shorter by a few inches. He has long golden hair (His hair practically made his head look like a golden coconut), blue eyes, a pair of rectangular glasses, a Sword Art Online T-Shit over a long-sleeved black shirt, bright blue jeans, and a pair of white and blue sneakers. This guy was Armin Arlert, my best friend since last year.

I met Armin when I found him hiding and eating his lunch in the bathroom during our lunch period. He was apparently trying to avoid the jocks because they so often dump his lunch all over him. Even if he finished all of his lunch before they got to him, he would still get dumped on with someone else's lunch. So I decided to watch over him until he finished.

As we walked out of the bathroom, we were confronted by the jocks. They tried dragging Armin over back into the cafeteria, but I attacked them with a few punches. But as you can probably already figure out, I didn't win. But they did decide to leave Armin alone for the day. Armin help me over to the nurse's office, and he said that I was just as cool as the good guys in the movie Kick-Ass.

Since then, we've been talking non-stop about martial arts movies, superhero movies (even parodies), anime, and Armin has even helped me understand a lot of things that were difficult for me to understand in Science class. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Armin is immensely intelligent. He actually gets the best grades in most of his classes. Me and Armin have been good friends ever since.

"Yo! Eren, bring it in!" Armin cried as we both embraced each other in a tight hug

"Hey, Armin. How was your summer?" I asked

"Well, if you can't tell by my T-Shit, I really got into this new anime called Sword Art Online." Armin responded as he held his shirt higher up "It's about this guy who gets stuck inside of a video game and has to play through the entire game in order to get out. It's a matter of life and death too. If he dies in the game, he dies in real life too."

"Ooh, that sounds pretty badass." I said

"I'm currently seven episodes into it already, the eighth episode hasn't aired yet." Armin said "What about you? What have you been up to this summer?"

"Oh you know, the usual. Playing my video games, kicking ass and taking names." I answered, "Aside from that, not really anything."

"Seriously? You didn't go see The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Hunger Games, or The Hobbit?" Armin asked with a surprised tone

"Why are you listing down movies that all begin with the word "The"?" I asked

"Eren, you need to get out of the house more often and live life." Armin lectured "You're not going to find any passion or any other hobbies if you keep yourself locked in your room staring at that flat rectangular box."

"Oh God, Armin, now you're starting to sound like my mother." I huffed

"Well, your mother is right. You're pretty much going to ruin yourself by playing videogames and only watching Kung-Fu movies all your life." Armin said

"I have other hobbies." I retorted like a little child

"Oh yeah? Name them." Armin said

I hesitated to try and think of what else I ever do aside from watching Kung-Fu movies and playing my video games. Truth be told, my mother and Armin really were right. I really didn't have any other hobbies in my life. I really didn't have any kind of passion that gets me out of the house, or even out of my own bedroom.

"Well…I uh…I watch anime." I answered

"Eren, you barely watch anime. You only watch about three or four animes, counting Dragon Ball Z and Naruto." Armin said "I know you hate it when your mother lectures you for not getting out of your bedroom enough, but she's right you know. A mother is always right."

I then flashed back to the argument me and my mother had this morning and the anger I felt towards her immediately came back to me.

"Oh, so my mother is right for being angry at me for doing things that I know is right?!" I snapped at Armin

"What?" Armin asked shocked at my sudden outburst

I then realized that I snapped at Armin and immediately took in a deep breath to cool myself down.

"I'm sorry, Armin, I didn't mean to yell at you." I said "It's just that…me and my mother got into an argument this morning."

"Really? I'm sorry for asking, but what were you guys arguing about?" Armin asked

"I'll tell you about it once we get to class. Discussing it here is not safe." I said

After the principal of the school did his welcoming ceremony for all of the students and finally allowed everyone to report to their first period classes, me and Armin reported to English class. Once we were there, I told Armin about the argument between me and my mother. I told him about how she kept on telling me to stop getting myself involved with the jocks bullying everyone and I kept on telling her that I'm the only who's ever going to step in and try to change things for the better.

"So now I think you understand why I indirectly snapped at you, Armin." I said

"Eren, I'm going to be honest with you." Armin said in a rather unsympathetic tone "As much as I understand your good intentions of trying to stop the jocks from bullying others, I'm going to have to go with what your mother says. She, once again, is right. You've made many many attempts to make a change and yet you still ended up with many injuries. You haven't really changed a thing by trying to step in; really, all you've done was make yourself another target for the jocks."

"Are you kidding me, Armin?!" I snapped again "What else can I do when nobody else is brave enough to stand up to those assholes when they bully other students like you?!"

"As much as I appreciate everything you do for trying to help me and other students, what good does it do you to get beaten up so often?" Armin asked

"…It saves other kids from misery, that's the good it does me." I answered softly

"So you're okay with making your own life miserable as long as you're preventing another kid's life getting miserable?" Armin asked

"I'm okay with trying to get the jocks to see the errors of their ways, even if it costs me many beatings." I answered in a serious tone

Armin fell silent for a little while as he looked down at his desk.

"I just don't want to see my best friend suffer because he feels like the lives of other kids are more important than his own." Armin said

As I was about to respond, our English teacher, Ms. Brzenska, walked into the classroom. Ms. Brzenska was a woman who looked like she was probably in her late twenties, had average length platinum colored blonde hair and silver eyes. She also wore a pair of oval-shaped glasses. She was wearing a grey power suit and black dress shoes.

Ms. Brzenska didn't look so pleased to be seeing any of us. She glared at most of us when she entered the room and walked over to her desk. And the first things that came out of her mouth only proved the feeling of her not being pleased that morning.

"Alright, all you little shits, let's get this over with." Ms. Brzenska said in a really annoyed tone "I'm going to start with rollcall. You know how this works, and you know who you are."

Ms. Brzenska took up a clipboard that contained the names of all of the students assigned to the class and skimmed through it.

"Arlert!" Ms. Brzenska called out

"Here!" Armin Responded

"Yeager!" Ms. Brzenska called out

"Here!" I responded

"Ackerman!" Ms. Brzenska called out

There was no response. Dead silence filled the room after someone by the last name of "Ackerman" was called. Ms. Brzenska looked around the room and back at the clipboard.

"Ackerman?!" Ms. Brenska called out again

Once again, there was no response. Feeling curious, I looked around the room myself. I saw nobody making any kind of response until I saw a hand being risen from someone in the back corner of the other side of the class room. I took a good look at the figure that rose their hand.

The figure was a girl with jet black hair that came down to the bottom of her chin, dark blue eyes, perfect lips, fairly smooth and reflective skin, a white short sleeved shirt underneath a black leather vest, bright blue jeans, and black leather boots. But the most notable thing about this feminine figure was that she was wearing a dark red scarf around her neck.

Ms. Brzensak seemed to have noticed the girl raising her hand.

"Ms. Ackerman, we are permitted to announce our presence when our names are called out. The next time I call out your name, you will give me a proper response. Do I make myself clear?" Ms. Brzenska demanded

The girl responded to Ms. Brzenska's question softly.

"Louder!" Ms. Brzenska yelled

"Yes ma'am!" the girl cried out

"That's better. Next time you disobey me, I'm getting out the stick." Ms. Brzenska said as she continued to go through the list of attendants

As I listened to Ms. Brzenska call out the rest of the students, I couldn't help but get a few good glances at the black haired girl. To be honest, she was looking (Dare I say it) very sexy in that black leather vest and those black leather boots. But each time I got a glance at her, I kept on getting the feeling she was also glancing over at me. I didn't know if she was somehow sensing that I was looking at her or if she was also taking some turns to glace at me.

But something suddenly struck my head as I glanced at her a few times more. For some reason that I couldn't really explain, the girl looked all too familiar for some reason. I couldn't put my finger onto where I could have ever possibly seen that girl before in my life…or so I just couldn't remember where I saw this girl before in my life.


	2. Chapter 2

**Eren Yeager**

 **The Karate Kid**

Chapter 2: Worst Day Ever

Throughout most of the day, it was really just everyone reporting to all of their classes, being given a bunch of introductions and talks about what the class is going to be doing throughout the semester, and being given all the paperwork that needs to be filled out by either a parent or legal guardian.

For most of the day, everything was going just fine for me. None of the jocks were really doing anything to me or anyone else…that is until lunch time came around.

As I entered the cafeteria for my lunch period that afternoon, I got myself the usual kind of lunch that I've been getting myself nearly every day last year: A double-decker PB&J sandwich, a slice of Pepperoni and Sausage Pizza, and an ice cold can of Dr. Pepper. I then wandered around the cafeteria until I found Armin sitting at one of the tables that sat against the big glass window wall. I pulled up a chair next to him, sat my lunch down on the table, and sat right into the chair. Armin gave me the "Are you for real?" look as I started to open up the box that contained my sandwich.

"Is that all you're going to eat throughout high school, Eren?" Armin asked as he placed his lunch box in front of him and unzipped it taking out his lunch

"They are the only things that are even good." I replied as I took one half of the sandwich and placed it in my mouth taking a bite

"Have you ever thought about bringing your own lunch to school? You could eat much healthier things that way." Armin said

Armin always brought his own lunch that he makes from home. He usually brings a container of some leftover dinner, an apple, orange, or banana, and a bottle of water. Armin is a bit of a picky eater. He likes to eat healthy most of the time, but he does treat himself to something like fast food from time to time. Armin isn't really like a fitness nut; he doesn't go exercising or anything, he's just very picky about what he eats.

"Why? I have great metabolism. I don't have to worry about how healthy the things I eat are." I answered Armin

"Metabolism doesn't last forever, Eren." Armin said

"Well it's lasted for fifteen years, so I don't see myself needing to worry about what I need to eat so quickly." I replied

Armin sighed as he took a fork full of Potato Chip Chicken Casserole and placed it in his mouth. For a couple of minutes, me and Armin didn't say a word as we ate our lunch. But then, Armin broke the silence after taking a few sips from his bottle.

"So, is that Ackerman girl catching your eye or something?" Armin asked

"What?!" I cried as I nearly choked on the first piece of the second half of my sandwich

"I saw you staring at her for most of the entire class period." Armin said before taking a sip from his water bottle, "Are you crushing on her or what?"

"No, I'm not crushing on her." I scoffed

"Uh huh, sure you're not." Armin replied sarcastically

"Armin, does she not in anyway look familiar to you?" I asked trying to get Armin to knock off his stupid behavior

Armin hesitated for a while coming to the realization that I was actually being serious.

"…No, I don't think I've ever seen her before." Armin said, "Why, do you think she looks familiar?"

I stared down at my lunch as I tried my hardest to retrace all my memories of the past.

"For some reason, her very appearance just rings a bell of some sort; but I can't quite put my finger on where I might have seen her before." I said as I then placed the other half of my sandwich back into my mouth

At this point, I decided that it was time for me to wash down my sandwich with my drink. I sat the remains of the sandwich down as I reach out for my Dr. Pepper can. It had gotten a little warmer after being outside of a fridge for about ten minutes, but it was still cold enough to feel like it was ice cold. I popped the pull tab on the top of the can and closed my eyes as I began to drink my beverage.

And…that's when the trouble started.

"Well well well, looks like you two weaklings couldn't have picked an easier place to be found." said a voice right behind me

I managed to swallow the amount of soda in my mouth before I could choke on it. I let out a really unpleased sigh as both me and Armin turned around to see two jocks that have been giving all of the little guys a hard time ever since last year.

Reiner Braun: The star player of the football team. A six-foot, blonde haired, and really bulky guy who is claimed to be as strong as an ox or maybe the professional WWE wrestler, Brock Lesnar. Reiner is capable of tackling 3-4 guys at a time and still managing to make a touch down in a football game. He's also the reason why our school football team won the state championship last year. If only Reiner weren't such a massive jerk to almost everyone, I would think that he was a rather decent role model.

Of course, there was also Bertholdt Hoover: The star wrestler on the wrestling team. A six-foot, three tall, black-haired man who wasn't as bulky as Reiner was, but still had plenty of muscle to be shown underneath his clothes. Bertholdt has one of the firmest grips I've ever experienced in my life, which actually the biggest reason as to why he's such a good wrestler. It's because of his firm grip, that he is capable of locking his opponents in submission holds that har practically impossible to escape from.

Reiner and Bertholdt got into a wrestling match/fist fight with each other once before because they wanted to see who the toughest jock in the school was. Nobody really knows who won the fight, but what everyone does know is that at the end of it, Reiner and Bertholdt basically won each other's respect. However, it was rumored that it was probably Reiner that won the fight because he supposedly was able to escape from one of Bertholdt's submission holds.

I looked at Reiner and Bertholdt as they looked at both me and Armin with their usual trouble hunger grins.

"I figured that you two pipsqueaks would have spent the summer learning from your mistakes and would have come to realize that it's not a good idea to have food around you during this hour while we're around." Reiner mocked

"Reiner, everyone is free to have lunch during this time. You are in no control as to who gets to eat lunch or not." I spat out as I glared at both of them

Bertholdt shared a glare as he walked over to me and grabbed both of my wrists, squeezing them both very tightly, causing me to tightly close my eyes and wince much to my embarrassment.

"An underclassman has no right to give out orders to his superiors." Bertholdt said in a cold tone of voice "How about you remember your rightful place before you even dare to talk to your seniors like you're above us."

I gritted my teeth as it felt like the blood flow in my wrists were coming to a stop due to Bertholdt's grip. But with whatever endurance I had within me, I fought against the pain as best as I could as I opened my eyes again to glare back at Bertholdt.

"You guys may be senior students, but that doesn't mean that you get to take control and make the rules of this school. You both are still students; students, just like everyone else here. You still have to abide by the rules of this school, and one of those rules is to treat every student as equals. So really, you both have no right to act like you get to command your fellow stu- "

I was immediately cut off by Bertholdt as he threw both of my arms down causing me to fall out of my seat and flat on my face onto the floor. When I hit the floor, I thought that my nose had been broken as I felt something dripping from it. I slowly picked myself up from the floor and ran my index finger from underneath my nose, looked down at it, and saw that I was right about the blood. I then place my bloodless hand over my nose and ran it side to side to see if it hurt at all. Thankfully enough, my nose wasn't broken.

"Oh, what's the matter, pipsqueak, you gonna cry?" Bertholdt mocked

I felt myself clenching my fists tightly as I raised my right fist next to my face and was about to turn right around and throw a punch right into Bertholdt's face. But then I immediately remembered the promise I made to my mother that morning. I hesitated for a while trying to not let the temptation of punching Bertholdt get to me. In the end, I had beaten my temptation as I lowered my fist.

"Guys, now is not a good day to be giving me any trouble. It's only the first day. Can you guys please just call this off?" I asked hoping that they would at least consider leaving

"What's this? Puny Yeager is begging for us to leave him alone?" Reiner asked mockingly

"Looks like that fighting spirit of yours has died over the summer." Bertholdt added

"Come on guys, please. Eren's not in the mood for any of this right now. Please just leave." Armin asked them, trying to defend me without pissing them off

"Nobody gave you permission to talk, coconut head." Reiner said to Armin with a threatening glare before looking back at me "Anyway, that's a shame. I was honestly really hoping to see you still have that spirit of yours this year…just so I could be you up and break it again and again and again, just like last time. Guys like you are no fun to beat up."

"So you'll leave us be?" I asked with a glimpse of hope

However, I then felt Bertholdt grab me by my arms again and pull them behind me as he pressed his right knee onto my back. I tried my hardest to pull my arms out of his grasp, but his super tight grip made it impossible for me to pull my arms away. I watched hopelessly as Reiner walked up to me and stopped right in front of me.

For a few seconds, he did absolutely nothing but just stare down at me. He then lifted his right leg behind him and drove it into my stomach like it was a soccer ball. It felt like all of the air in my lungs came out of me. I then felt Bertholdt let go of me as I struggled desperately to gasp for air. I felt myself losing strength in my arms quickly and then I collapsed flat onto the floor.

Reiner then used his foot to turn me over and make me lay flat on my back. Unable to talk or breathe, all I could do was look up at him as he crouched down and looked at me with a really pissed off look on his face.

"Let that be a lesson, pipsqueak, that if you ever demand anything from your upperclassmen again, we will remind you of your rightful place, and next time may not be as forgiving as today." Reiner said coldly as he glared threateningly down at me

Bertholdt then came over to Reiner's side with my Dr. Pepper can in his hands. He looked down at me and gave me a sickening grin.

"You still thirsty, pipsqueak?" Bertholdt asked, "Here, have a drink."

Bertholdt tilted the can over and all the soda that was left in the can came pouring down onto my face. I closed my eyes as I felt the disturbing impact of the sticky beverage landing all over my face and splattering everywhere. Both Reiner and Bertholdt laughed together after all of the soda was out of the can.

"Come on, Bertholdt, let's go find something else to do." Reiner said as he got up from crouching down as both he and Bertholdt left me and Armin alone

As I laid there, I felt myself drifting off into unconsciousness. I could hear Armin asking me if I was okay, but I was too hurt to answer him. His voice started to fade out along with my vision. Before I knew it, I was completely unconscious.

By the time I had woken up, I found myself laying on a bed inside the nurse's office. I had found out by Armin that I was unconscious for the majority of fourth period. Armin made sure to get me my own copies of the paperwork that I needed to have filled out by a parent or legal guardian while I was unconscious. He also made sure to explain my absence by vaguely saying that I was in the nurse's office due to stomach pains. To be perfectly fair, he wasn't really lying at all. My stomach was hurting pretty bad from Reiner's kick.

As the After School bell rang, I walked out of the nurse's office and headed for the front entrance of the school. As I was walking down the hallways and came around to the cafeteria, I looked inside to see a janitor cleaning up the spilled Dr. Pepper from earlier.

The janitor's appearance was that of a man who looked like he was in his early thirties. He had long neck length black hair, black colored eyes with squinted eyelids, and he was wearing the casual janitor's uniform. I honestly felt bad for the janitor for needing to clean up a mess that wasn't even his own. It just wasn't fair.

The janitor suddenly looked up at me, which caused me to feel a bit frightened as I then walked passed the cafeteria doors, making my way to the front doors and outside of the school.

As I walked my way home, I silently ranted to myself about how much I hated Reiner and Bertholdt acting like they could just get away with anything they wanted and that there was nothing anybody could do about it. I felt so angry that even when I didn't do any offense to them, they still beat me up…I felt humiliated. I felt so furious…I wished that I had never promised my mother to not engage in a fight today. If I had engaged, I would have at least had some self-respect and defended myself when I was being abused.

My mother…She was the main reason as to why I let myself get beat up today and miss fourth period. She was the one who made me promise to not get myself involved in a fight that day. All of the rage towards my mother built up inside of me that I let out a really loud yell of anger as it echoed through the air, although that scream really hurt my stomach. Unfortunately, that yell alone wasn't enough to let out all of the anger inside of me.

When I reached home, I opened up the front door, stepped inside, and closed the door behind me. I walked into the living room where I found my mother sitting on the couch and folding laundry. My mother must have heard me come inside since she turned around to look at me with her usual genuine smile.

"Hey sweetie, how was your first day." my mother asked sweetly

"…Nothing special." I answered coldly as I placed my book bag down on the floor

My mother's genuine smile turned into a look of concern.

"What do you mean? Something interesting must have happened. Did you get to see Armin again today?" she asked

"…Yes." I answered coldly again

"Well then that's something special, right?" she asked

I just remained silent not answering her question. My mother nagging me to answer her questions really didn't help with the fact that I was already very pissed off as it was.

"Why does it matter, Mom?!" I snapped

My mother was now starting to look unpleased with my sudden rude outburst.

"Eren, lose the attitude right now." my mother demanded

"Oh, you want me to lose my attitude like you wanted me to lose my self-respect?!" I shot back at her

"Eren, what are you talking about?" she asked me

"I'm talking about you making me swear to not go picking any fights today. I did exactly what you said, and do you know what happened? I STILL GOT FUCKING BEAT UP!" I rose my voice

My mother suddenly rose from the couch and glared angrily at me.

"Eren Yeager, you raise your voice at me like that again and- " my mother said before I cut her off

"And you'll do what, Mom?! Are you gonna ground me?! That's all you ever do. You NEVER care about what I have to say! It's always "Eren, you listen to me" or "Eren, stop doing what you're doing"! You never even consider if my voice is even WORTH being heard! You don't even care about what I have to say, all you wanna hear is yourself having complete dominance over me! You're supposed to be a supportive mother and you're doing a fucking piss poor job at it!" I shouted

My mother lifted one of her arms and pointed her index finger towards the staircase that led up to my bedroom.

"Room, now." she demanded in a firm tone

If I was smart at this point, I would have just listened to her and walked away from this. But just as it so happens, I was far too proud of myself to back down to my mother's demands. I was determined to place my own foot down my own mother a punishment of my own.

"I'm not going anywhere until I finally get the point I'm trying to make through that thick skull of yours." I said determinedly

My response only made my mother glare harder.

"You have ten seconds to march up to your bedroom." she said as she started counting down

I remained perfectly still as my mother finished counting down all the way from ten to one. My mother closed her eyes and let out a very heavy sigh.

"I cannot believe you're driving me to do this." my mother whispered with her voice sounding like it cracked

My mother grabbed hold of my right arm and attempted to drag me up the stairs and into my room. But I wasn't going to let her have her way. I yanked my right arm over towards me, causing my mother to stumble backwards and lose her grip on my arm. I then slipped my arm out of her grasp, balled my hand into a fist, and drove it into her right cheek.

I watched as my mother stumbled backwards until she fell down onto the floor with her hand covering her cheek. And then, in that moment, I came to fully realize what I had just done.

All of the angry and fury I felt towards my mother had suddenly had gone away. All I could feel now…was horror...horror and regret. I could feel my own fist shaking at the moment of realizing that I just did what I never wanted to do since Dad died…I physically hurt my mother.

And what I saw next just made me feel even worse.

I watched as my mother lifted her upper body up from the floor with her left arm while her right hand was covering her cheek. My eyes widened as I saw tears rolling down from my mother's eyes.

"…E- Eren…How could you?..." my mother cried

I slowly walked backwards as the fear and regret of what I had just done was slowly consuming me.

"…Eren?..." my mother said through her broken voice

That was the moment where I had lost it. I turned around and opened up the front door, running right out of the house. I didn't even bother to close the door behind me due to all of the overwhelming emotions inside of me. I could hear my mother crying out my name from right behind me, but I didn't even bother to look back as I kept on running and running and running.

I ran all the way to the town's park, where I found myself a nice tree to hide under by the lake. I held my legs close to me as I tightly squeezed my head and screamed out as loud as I could. I don't even know if I was disturbing anyone at the park as I was screaming nearly non stop that day, but I really didn't care. I was too upset with myself for hurting my mother like that. I had been screaming bloody murder for about half an hour.

Two hours have passed since I arrived at the park to get away from my mother and take out all of my misery on myself. I didn't even bother to look up to gaze off at the lake, except for when I had to adjust my neck. But my moment of loneliness was interrupted when I heard a voice coming from right next to me.

"What are you doing way out here, kid?" the voice said, which sounded like to be the voice of a man

"Please leave me alone." I said not bothering to lift my head

"Shouldn't you be at home, you know, working on your homework for the new school year?" the voice asked again

"It was only the first day of school. We don't really start getting homework until tomo- " I froze as I suddenly came to a realization and looked up to whoever was talking to me "Hold on, how did you know that I ha- "

I stopped talking completely when I came to realize exactly who was talking to me. I recognized the black neck-length hair and the black eyes with the squinting eyelids. The man talking to me was the janitor that I saw in the cafeteria earlier today.


	3. Chapter 3

**Eren Yeager**

 **The Karate Kid**

Chapter 3: Get Back On The Right Path

"You're- " I stuttered "You're the janitor from the cafeteria earlier today."

The janitor suddenly chuckled

"Yes, and you're the kid I saw looking at me when I was cleaning up the spilled soda." the janitor said

I felt a wave of embarrassment flow through me from learning that he actually saw me. I looked away for a few seconds before looking back at him with a curious question in mind.

"What are you doing here anyway?" I asked as I looked back at him

The janitor tilted his head to the right and cocked his eyebrow.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked

"Because I asked you what you were doing here first," the janitor said as he then poked me on the forehead "So my question requires your answer before I can answer yours."

I looked away again. I looked down at the ground as the feelings of fear and regret were returning to me. I struggled to let out what I wanted to say due to how much I was stuttering.

"Hey hey hey. Easy, slow down." the janitor said, "Take a deep breath or two and collect your thoughts."

I did exactly as he said and took in about three deep breaths while thinking of what to say before I spoke again.

"Alright. Now, what were you trying to say?" the janitor asked

I continued to think until I came to the conclusion that I should just be straight with him and tell him the truth. I felt hesitant at first, but I was ready after taking a few more deep breaths.

"…I had to get away from home." I answered

"Why?" the janitor asked

"…I hurt my mother…" I said

I felt a lump in my throat as I found it very hard to continue on. However, despite my discomfort, I went on anyway.

"This morning, my mother made me promise not to get involved with whatever trouble the jocks at school at least for today. When the jocks arrived earlier today during my lunch period, I told them that I wanted no trouble from them today because it was the first day. I hoped that they would have at least considered leaving me alone just for the day, but they didn't listen. One of them held me down onto my knees while the other kicked my in the stomach, making me fall unconscious. They even spilled my soda all over my face. On the way home, I felt so humiliated by what happened and I felt like my pride was greatly hurt because I didn't stand up for myself. I felt so angry at my mother for making me promise to not get involved with the jocks, that when I got home, I yelled my head off at her, blaming her for what happened to me and then I…"

I paused for a while as I felt like I was feeling nauseous. I could have sworn that I was going to throw up at any second. But after taking in some deep breaths to relieve my nausea, I looked at the janitor with a look of serious regret on my face.

"…I punched my mother's face…" I finally answered

The janitor's eyes widened at my answer. He looked completely speechless after I admitted what I had done. I looked away again as I continued.

"…After I punched her, I then realized exactly what I had done and all the anger I felt just vanished. All I could feel right in that moment was horror and regret towards what I had done. It hit me even harder when I saw my mother on the floor, covering her cheek, while crying. I then ran out of the house out of fear of what I had done and I ran all the way here. I spent the past two hours screaming my head off, mentally cursing myself…and then, I think you know the rest."

I looked back at the janitor as his eyes were still wide. I'm honestly not really sure, but I think there was something traumatizing going through his mind at the time. The look on the janitor's face then turned into what looked like a mixture of both sternness and sympathy.

"Is it really your mother's fault that _you_ chose to listen to her? Was it not your choice to not get into a fight?" the janitor asked

I sighed, knowing full well what the right answer was.

"No, it wasn't her fault. I _did_ choose to not engage into a fight." I answered

"And did your mother ever tell those bullies to attack you after she asked you not to engage?" the janitor continued

"…No." I answered softly

"Then you know full well that your mother is not at fault in any way for what happened to you." the janitor said Sure, she may be the reason as to why you chose not to engage into a fight, but regardless, it was still _your_ choice. And I'm not saying what happened to you was your fault either, all I'm saying is that you have to give yourself all the time and the world to calm yourself down and carefully think about who's really at fault for things that happen to you or anyone else. And you also have to think about how you're going to solve the problem."

"Well I mean no offense, sir, but I've been trying to solve the problem by showing those jocks that they can't just going around making other kids lives miserable." I responded as respectfully as I could

The janitor let out a soft sigh as he then placed his left hand on my left shoulder.

"I can tell your heart's in the right place, …but your idea of solving this problem is only what will allow the problem to continue. Fighting is always the last answer to a problem." the janitor said before continuing "But more importantly, one bigger problem that needs to be solved is how you're going to make it up to your mother after attacking her. What do you think you should do?"

I fell silent for a few minutes. I was honestly feeling very unsure as to how I was going to make it up to my mother after what I had done.

"…I…I guess I should apologize to her." I answered while feeling uneasy

"Apologizing is always the first step, but you should also realize that this kind of action will require a real, serious commitment towards never ever taking your anger out on anybody again, _especially_ your own mother. Nobody in this world is ever going to be as loving and forgiving towards you as your mother, kid. That's what mothers do. They do their absolute damning hardest to give you a good and healthy life. They give you clean clothes to wear, healthy food to eat, bathroom products to keep your body clean, they give you whatever nice things you ask for as well as nice things that they can afford, they deal with a child's snotty attitudes, they deal with the needless and ruthless name calling that some children give them, and above all else, they make you feel loved, secure, and always reassure you that you are worth something. There is no better treasure in this world than a mother…"

The janitor stopped talking for a few seconds before his voice suddenly became filled with venom.

"…And it's absolutely disgusting how lots of people just take them for granted." the janitor finished

He was right. My mother really didn't deserve the kind of treatment I've been giving her after all the good things she has done for me. It just wasn't fair for my mother to have to do her absolute best to take care of me and for me to just give her a bullshit attitude and physically hurt her in return.

"But," the janitor spoke up again in a calmer tone, "I don't think you truly take your mother for granted as easily as a lot of other kids do, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't be so upset at the fact that you know that you hurt her."

I began to feel a bit less on edge listening to how the janitor knows and understands that I don't feel good about hurting my mother.

"No, I don't." I answered

"Then just remember what I said to you. You apologize to her, make a real commitment towards never taking your anger out on her ever again, and do **everything** in your power to make it up to her. She may be very on edge when you see her again, and she might have a hard time accepting your apology, but don't let that ever stop you from trying to make things right. You have plenty to time to start making it up to your mother, kid, and there is no time like the present." The janitor said to me with a confident smile on his face

The janitor's words really helped me start feeling better and also motivated to make things right to my mother. I felt a smile form onto my face as I looked at the janitor.

"Thanks, Mr…" I paused because I didn't know the janitor's name

"Murakumo. Murakumo is my name." the janitor answered

"Mr. Murakumo, thanks for the talk." I thanked once again

"It was no trouble…whatever your name is that I still don't know." Mr. Murakumo responded in an amusing tone

I snickered at his sense of humor.

"Eren. Eren is my name." I answered

"Well A-A-Ron, it was nice-" Mr. Murakumo was saying before he was cut off by my sudden burst of laughter at his joke towards my name

After a minute or two of laughing out loud, my laughter finally began to cease.

"No, no no. My name is spelle N, no N." I corrected him while still snickering a little

"Oh, how interesting. Well, E R E N, it was nice talking to you." Mr. Murakumo said before remembering something "Oh! I just remembered, to answer your question from earlier. I was just…"

Mr. Murakumo was cut off by the sound of a car horn going off. We both looked over to the side to see a bright blue sedan parked in the driveway at the front of the park. I recognized the car all too well because it was my mother's car, meaning she was waiting for me.

"That's my mother's car." I said as I turned to look back at Mr. Murakumo "I have to get going."

Mr. Murakumo looked back at me and smiled.

"I understand, Eren. I hope both you and your mother make the best of this night as you can. I also hope I'll get to see you at school again." Mr. Murakumo said

"Thanks, Mr. Murakumo…I hope I'll get to see you again too." I responded

"Alright, best hurry along. She's waiting for you." Mr. Murakumo said signaling his hand over to my mother's car

I nodded as I then began walking over to the car. As I was walking, I remembered what Mr. Murakumo said about my mother probably being very on edge after what I did to her and that she'll probably have a hard time accepting my apology, which was making me feel really nervous and was causing my legs to shake the closer I got to the car. I then felt a lump form in my throat as I grabbed onto the passenger seat's door handle and opened the door.

I looked inside the car as the inside lights turned on and I saw my mother in the driver's seat. She was holding a bag of ice against her cheek. I stood there with the door open as the fear and guilt of what I had done was all coming back to me.

"Eren…" my mother spoke up as her voice cracked "Please get in the car."

I finally stopped stalling, climbed into the passenger seat, buckled my seat-belt, and closed the door. My mother began driving out of the driveway and away from the park. The majority of the drive back to the house was awfully silent between us until my mother finally broke the silence.

"Do you have any forms for school that I need to sign?" my mother asked as her voice cracked

"…Yes." I responded quietly as I slightly looked at her

"Alright…I'll sign your forms the moment we get home. After that…" my mother's tone then turned serious while her voice was still cracking "…I want you to go straight to your room and not come out of it unless I say you can. You are grounded for a month. Every day after school, you are going to come straight home, go straight to your room, and do your homework. As for the weekends, I'll have some chores for you to do. I made sure to take your TV out of your room so you won't get distracted when doing your homework nor stay up past your bedtime. If you want to keep yourself from getting bored, you can either read a book or do some drawing."

I looked down at my feet, feeling bummed about my mother grounding me and taking away my TV. But I knew that it was what I rightfully deserved for what I had done. I then remembered what Mr. Murakumo said, about how there's no time like the present to apologize and do my very best to make things right to my mother. I looked at her completely

"…Mom…I'm sorry..." I began "…I'm sorry I blamed what happened to me at school on you. I'm sorry I yelled at you…I'm extremely sorry I punched you."

My mother remained silent. I noticed that her eyes were twitching while also very shiny and reflective. Her lips were also trembling and her breath was shaky.

"…Just…please listen to me and just do what I ask you to do…" my mother said very uneasily

By the time we arrived back at the house, I pulled the papers out of my bookbag and gave them to my mother to sign. After she finished signing them, I placed them back into my bookbag and headed straight to my room. When I entered my room, I looked to where my TV was and saw that my mother really did take it out. I sighed quietly as I then laid down onto my bed and stared at the ceiling.

Me and my mother didn't speak to each other for the rest of the night, not even when we were eating dinner together. It was about my bedtime at this point. I had already gotten a shower, brushed my teeth, and I was now laying wide away in my bed. Suddenly, I heard strange noises coming from my mother's bedroom next door. I got up from my bed, walked up to the wall, and placed my ear onto the wall.

I could hear the sounds of my mother sobbing to herself. I felt my heart sink as I listened to my mother's crying. However, my heart didn't hit rock bottom until I heard my mother start mentioning my father.

"I don't know if I can keep doing this without you, Grisha." I heard my mother say "Eren just won't listen to me. He's not doing all of his homework, he's staying up way past his bedtime, and he's becoming very aggressive to the point where he's attacking me…What am I supposed to do?"

I felt my lips tremble as tears began to form in my eyes as I heard my mother crying out more about her fear and confusion as to what to do with me. I backed away from the wall and laid back down onto my bed. I felt the tears finally start rolling down my cheeks as I was now once again mentally cursing myself for making my mother's life much harder, especially considering how hard both of our lives already were ever since my dad died. I continued to cry until I drifted to sleep.

The next morning, the mother came into my room to wake up to get ready for school. I did exactly what she said and got on some clean clothes. I threw on a normal plain black shirt, blue jeans, socks, and my sneakers. I brushed my teeth, and even fixed myself a bowl of Frosted Flakes. After I finished my Frosted Flakes, I then rinsed out my bowl and placed it in the sink. My mother then walked into the kitchen.

"Please don't forget to come straight home after school and do your homework, alright?" my mother asked quietly

"…I won't." I responded just as quietly

I grabbed my bookbag from right next to my dining room chair, placed it on my back, and walked out of the house. I noticed that it was grey and cloudy outside. I let out a heavy sigh as I walked all the way towards the school, hoping that it wouldn't start raining as I was walking.

I finally arrived at the school and I entered through the front doors. As I was walking down the entrance hallway, I felt something tapping my left shoulder. It felt like some sort of wooden stick.

"Hey there, E R E N." I heard a familiar voice from my left side

I looked over to my left and saw Mr. Murakumo standing inbetween the double doors of the cafeteria. His friendly smile and humor brought a smile upon my face, which was what I really needed since both me and my mother weren't in the best mood today, especially since the cloudy weather wasn't making our moods any better.

"Hey, Mr. Murakumo." I responded

"So how are you today?" Mr. Murakumo asked

I looked down at the floor, once again feeling bummed out.

"Honestly, I could be a lot better." I answered

Mr. Murakumo's friendly smile was replaced with a look of concern.

"Why's that? Did you not apologize to your mother yesterday?" Mr Murakumo asked as he tilted his head

"…I did…" I replied with honesty "…But me and my mother aren't exactly on the best of speaking terms right now. I've also been grounded for a month with no TV nor leaving my room."

Mr. Murakumo walked up to me and placed his left hand onto my right shoulder. He then gave a smile that looked like a mix of sympathy and confidence.

"I understand that it's hard for both you and your mother to move past this, and I get that your bummed out about having your privileges be restricted for a while, but I guarantee you that it'll only get better for both you and your mother with given time. Just remember what you learned yesterday, keep on working towards getting yourself back on the right path, and I promise you what happened yesterday will be nothing more than just a memory." Mr. Murakumo said confidently

I felt a smile form onto my face.

"Thanks, Mr. Murakumo. I really needed to hear that." I said

"No problem, Eren." Mr. Murakumo responded kindly "Alright, I gotta get to work. Hopefully I won't find another kid's piece of gum underneath a table anywhere, let alone under my shoes."

I laughed again at his jokes.

"Alright, Mr. Murakumo, I hope you have a good day today." I said

"Same for you, Eren." Mr. Murakumo replied

I then continued walking down the hallways. I was almost at my English class and everything seemed to be going good for me. Unfortunately, as I was walking, I noticed Reiner and Bertholdt bullying another kid not too far from where I was standing. I absolutely hated the sight of the poor kid getting bullied by those two jocks, but I remembered what Mr. Murakumo said to me yesterday, about how fighting is always the last answer to any problem. I also didn't want to cause anymore damage to me and my mother's relationship, especially since I'm working really hard towards repairing it.

I decided that it was for the best to not get involved and I continued walking towards my class. However, the anger I was feeling towards what Reiner and Bertholdt were doing was causing me to power walk. By the time I was already close to the class door, I was so focused on reaching the door, mixed with the fact that I was still angry at Reiner and Bertholdt, that I didn't realize that I was about to bump into someone until it was too late.

"Oh, I am so sorry." I apologized immediately "I was just so focused on heading to class that I didn-"

I stopped talking as I saw just who it was I bumped into. It was the Ackerman girl from yesterday. She was wearing a pink colored blouse, bright blue jeans, and her black leather boots today. She was also still wearing the same dark red scarf from yesterday. I felt some color reach my cheeks as she looked at me with a look of slight embarrassment. God, she looked so cute.

"Oh, no, it's okay." the Ackerman girl responded, "I wasn't exactly paying much attention where I was going either."

We both stood there in awkward silence. All I knew was that I had to break the silence somehow because I didn't want this to go on being anymore awkward than it already was.

"So…are you new around here?" I asked, hoping I could keep a conversation going

"Well…you could technically say that." the Ackerman girl answered, "I just moved to this district last week."

"Oh, I see." I responded "Do you like it here? The district I mean."

"Well, for the most part so far, I have." the Ackerman girl replied

"That's nice." I said

Unfortunately, the awkwardness between us only increased. It just felt way too uncomfortable for me to try to go on any further with the conversation.

"Well, this just got really awkward really fast, didn't it?" the Ackerman girl asked while smiling a bit

I felt both relieved and amused that she was the first one to bring up how awkward our conversation was.

"Yeah, it really did." I answered with a slight chuckle

The Ackerman girl chuckled along with me.

"Hey, can I ask you what your name is?" I asked "I mean, I already know your last name is Ackerman."

The Ackerman girl laughed a little.

"Sure. But can you please give me your name first, Mr. Yeager?" the Ackerman girl asked

"Okay, sure. It's Eren." I answered

The Ackerman girl then gave me a genuinely happy smile

Hello, Eren, my name is Mikasa." Mikasa answered

Mikasa…Now it wasn't just her appearance, it was now her name that was ringing a bell in my head. It was now official to me that I knew this girl from somewhere and I was going to figure out exactly where I knew her from one way or another.


End file.
